A picture-perfect end to John Mica's chairmanship

One of the most colorful members of Congress will soon have his likeness gracing a powerful committee’s hearing room for years to come.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) is set Wednesday to have his portrait hung in 2167 Rayburn, alongside paintings of former chairmen such as Don Young (R-Alaska) and Norman Mineta (D-Calif.). It will cap one of the more productive chairmanships of the 112th Congress, filled with partisan battles over infrastructure spending and a contentious member-vs.-member primary that threatened to send the 20-year Hill veteran home to Central Florida. And though Mica will return to Congress, it won’t be in the same role. Last week, he dropped his long-shot campaign for an exception to Republican rules that limited his chairmanship to two years; House members selected Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) to take the panel’s top spot. Mica said he was treated fairly but will miss holding the gavel.

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“No one wants to give it up, but I also have to play by the rules,” he said.

Mica is widely known for his zingers, dubbed on the Hill as “Micaisms,” a roster of quips that included a suggestion to huddle with lawmakers over “spiked grog” to settle their differences, and a recommendation that reporters bring hemorrhoid cream to a lengthy legislative markup. There’s also “some that you can’t print,” the chairman noted in an interview.

Jokes aside, Mica helped pass long-term transportation and aviation laws that a Democratic-controlled Washington did not during the first two years of President Barack Obama’s term. He also handily dispatched Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.) in a bitter primary challenge — while negotiating two bills worth tens of billions of dollars.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction in doing some of the major pieces of legislation that were stalled for so long,” Mica said. “Sometimes I even wonder how I could keep it all together.”

It hasn’t been all roses for the chairman, and Democrats in the Senate still bristle at the Federal Aviation Administration shutdown last summer led by Mica. But he said the two-week partial work stoppage was instrumental to a larger goal: getting a four-year bill done after hundreds of days of extensions.

“I was under siege. But sometimes you just have to assume a leadership stance and stick with it and go,” Mica said.

As his chairmanship winds down, Mica is not taking it easy. He held a hearing on Federal Emergency Management Agency legislation Tuesday and hopes to push through his reform bill before Congress adjourns for the year. Then, on Thursday, he will face off with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood over the Obama administration’s high-speed rail program.

First comes the portrait unveiling, which Mica hopes will “be the shortest in history” and will include few big names or droning speeches — though Mica’s successor will be in the audience.

Will Shuster carry on Mica’s knack for humor even during knockdown, drag-out negotiations? Shuster admitted they are big shoes to fill.

“I don’t know who writes his stuff for him,” Shuster said. “But I don’t have the same writers.”